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Price drop before final payment


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11 minutes ago, Selbourne said:


That’s interesting Andy and well done you for getting such a great deal. I was hoping to upgrade our daughters from an inside to a balcony on the Iona Maiden cruise (which sold out within a week or so of going on sale) as the balance due date was last week,  but although there have been cancellations they have been inside and outside (no balcony) cabins only. 

That's a shame. 

We only tried just in case we were quarantined and didn't want to be inside... 

Maybe for the same reason, nobody is giving up balconies on your cruise. 

Have a great time on the maiden, I'm sure it will be fantastic. 

Andy 

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13 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

That's a shame. 

We only tried just in case we were quarantined and didn't want to be inside... 

Maybe for the same reason, nobody is giving up balconies on your cruise. 

Have a great time on the maiden, I'm sure it will be fantastic. 

Andy 


You are spot on Andy. I was told by my contact at P&O that inside and outside (no balcony) cabins are being cancelled for that exact reason. Although we have a balcony cabin we tried to upgrade to a suite for the same reason (more walls to climb in a quarantine!) but no cancellations there either (mind you, we need an accessible cabin and there’s only one accessible suite on Iona). Our daughters decided to come a week after we booked but by then all that was left was insides, which none of us have ever had before, but faced with the choice of not coming they agreed. That being said, I think if there was a quarantine situation, to steal your line from another thread, only one would come out alive! 

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9 hours ago, Selbourne said:


You are spot on Andy. I was told by my contact at P&O that inside and outside (no balcony) cabins are being cancelled for that exact reason. Although we have a balcony cabin we tried to upgrade to a suite for the same reason (more walls to climb in a quarantine!) but no cancellations there either (mind you, we need an accessible cabin and there’s only one accessible suite on Iona). Our daughters decided to come a week after we booked but by then all that was left was insides, which none of us have ever had before, but faced with the choice of not coming they agreed. That being said, I think if there was a quarantine situation, to steal your line from another thread, only one would come out alive! 

We have had insides plenty of times on cheap deals and don't really mind them, so I'm sure your daughters will be fine. 

Lets just hope they can control this virus soon... 

Andy 

 

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On 2/14/2020 at 1:06 PM, daiB said:

The difference is down to the difference between US and UK consumer law. In the US the cruise line has to refund by law, in the U.K. they don’t.


It is quite common now for Celebrity (and others too I believe) to offer a much lower price for a cruise with NRD (non refundable deposit). Currently if you need to cancel a NRD booking, you lose $100 pp but the balance of your deposit must be used to make another booking, or that is also lost.  Customers still have the option to make bookings with a fully refundable deposit, but will pay more for their cruise.

 

I think the difference was just Custom and Practice rather than consumer laws, and now the (US) cruise companies are trying to wean North American consumers (Canadians too) off the fully refundable deposit model.

 

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, mrsgoggins said:


It is quite common now for Celebrity (and others too I believe) to offer a much lower price for a cruise with NRD (non refundable deposit). Currently if you need to cancel a NRD booking, you lose $100 pp but the balance of your deposit must be used to make another booking, or that is also lost.  Customers still have the option to make bookings with a fully refundable deposit, but will pay more for their cruise.

 

I think the difference was just Custom and Practice rather than consumer laws, and now the (US) cruise companies are trying to wean North American consumers (Canadians too) off the fully refundable deposit model.

 

 

 

 

Yes Celebrity are doing more of this and the price differential may stop people booking multiple cruises then cancelling the ones they don’t want (the ones with the least price drop benefits) at the last minute. 
 

 

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13 hours ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

......I think the difference was just Custom and Practice rather than consumer laws, and now the (US) cruise companies are trying to wean North American consumers (Canadians too) off the fully refundable deposit model.

 

 

More than just "wean" the refundable deposit cruises are comparible in price to the UK, but their non-refundable option are discounted by over $1000 on many cruises, significantly cheaper than the UK.  

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1 hour ago, Jossie1960 said:

 

More than just "wean" the refundable deposit cruises are comparible in price to the UK, but their non-refundable option are discounted by over $1000 on many cruises, significantly cheaper than the UK.  


Don’t I know it!  I did an onboard booking last month for $100 pp NR deposit and had it transferred to a US TA for a saving of just over £700 on the UK price for exactly the same thing.  It’s definitely an encouragement for US pax to go non-refundable - except now some of them are booking fully refundable and then changing close to final payment to NRD for the extra savings - giving them the flexibility they have always enjoyed AND the savings!  Lucky them ...... unless this loophole is plugged.

 

At least this isn’t an issue with P&O, which seems relatively straightforward by comparison.

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1 hour ago, mrsgoggins said:


except now some of them are booking fully refundable and then changing close to final payment to NRD for the extra savings - giving them the flexibility they have always enjoyed AND the savings!  Lucky them ...... unless this loophole is plugged.

 

 

Making a US refundable booking then cancelling - yes you get your deposit back (dependant on the US agent - some have fees) but YOU rebook at the prevailing rate.  So you will seldom win, its not a loophole...

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41 minutes ago, Jossie1960 said:

 

Making a US refundable booking then cancelling - yes you get your deposit back (dependant on the US agent - some have fees) but YOU rebook at the prevailing rate.  So you will seldom win, its not a loophole...


I’ve read of quite a few who report doing this to their benefit, so I wouldn’t know definitely whether ‘seldom’ applies.  However, I’m sure a P&O forum is not the place to debate the detail of Celebrity bookings, so I’ll once again celebrate that when I book with them, I don’t have to concern myself with all of this!

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27 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:


I’ve read of quite a few who report doing this to their benefit, so I wouldn’t know definitely whether ‘seldom’ applies.  However, I’m sure a P&O forum is not the place to debate the detail of Celebrity bookings, so I’ll once again celebrate that when I book with them, I don’t have to concern myself with all of this!

I never mentioned CELEBRITY, it applies to everyone except Carnival Corp Cruiselines.

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54 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:


I’ve read of quite a few who report doing this to their benefit, so I wouldn’t know definitely whether ‘seldom’ applies.  However, I’m sure a P&O forum is not the place to debate the detail of Celebrity bookings, so I’ll once again celebrate that when I book with them, I don’t have to concern myself with all of this!

Me neither. I search for  a cruise, decide on number days, ship, itinerary, cabin and price. If I'm happy I'll  book. Job done. I couldn't do with all the messing about to save a few pounds. Got better things to do.

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59 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Totally agree with you.  As I am paying about £76 per night for full board, albeit in an inside cabin, I couldn't be bothered trying to get it for less than that. 

To each their own Jean and I respect your personal perspective however for balcony’s and suites the differential can be horrendously different.

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28 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

To each their own Jean and I respect your personal perspective however for balcony’s and suites the differential can be horrendously 

Inside cabin , balcony or suite, the point Jean is  making I think, is that when you book at launch the prices very rarely go down but definitely go up and quite significantly sometimes.

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3 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

Inside cabin , balcony or suite, the point Jean is  making I think, is that when you book at launch the prices very rarely go down but definitely go up and quite significantly sometimes.

The times they are a changing. Early booking the last few years has been advantageous but with more ships and Coronavirus I suspect that will not be the case for long.

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7 hours ago, davemorton said:

Well I for one wish it would go back to the old ways.  I can not plan 2 years in advance, so booking 90 days before the cruise would suit me perfectly. 

I would imagine a lot of people would like to go back to the old ways.  We are retired so can and do book 2 years in advance but as we get older we are faced with our mortality and are more aware that we are planning something that we may have to cancel for health reasons.

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I agree with most comments about price not being bettered when booked at launch. However, people rarely make it clear that they are mean select price. 

When I check, usually mid month on cruises departing the next month; I often find bargains on late savers.

For example, Oceana departing on 8th March(14n) when I looked earlier in the week was £700 each for inside (£50pppn).

If you can't book 2 years ahead, then the savings can be considerable.

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8 hours ago, davemorton said:

Well I for one wish it would go back to the old ways.  I can not plan 2 years in advance, so booking 90 days before the cruise would suit me perfectly. 

The same for us but generally it's about 8wks before for us which means we have to cough up the full amount straightaway usually with no benefits  I'm currently trying to get DH to see the benefits of booking Azura for Nov this year now but 🙉🙈🙄. .....

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As we are only sporadic cruisers,  unlike many others here, I too am uneasy about having to book so far in advance  in order to secure an attractive price.  In early 2019,  we bit the bullet, and booked a 35 day cruise on Ventura for January 2021. The price was reasonable,  and in fact, if I was to book the same cruise today,  it would cost us an additional £2,500.

But, Mrs W is now having second thoughts, and it is likely that we will end up cancelling the trip, and will sacrifice the deposit of around  £500. A fair amount of money, but I'd far rather lose it, than be moaned at by Mrs W for five weeks!

In future, I think I'll just look at last minute options, which means Mrs W wont have time to change her mind. 

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1 hour ago, oxygenbanditnot said:

I agree with most comments about price not being bettered when booked at launch. However, people rarely make it clear that they are mean select price. 

When I check, usually mid month on cruises departing the next month; I often find bargains on late savers.

For example, Oceana departing on 8th March(14n) when I looked earlier in the week was £700 each for inside (£50pppn).

If you can't book 2 years ahead, then the savings can be considerable.

We usually book at launch, but as has been said, times are changing. 

With the need to fill the bigger ships and current climate, this year we will probably hold fire. 

I doubt the bargains will appear on the adult only or most popular ships, but the 7-14 night Southampton cruises, if you are a bit flexible, should throw up some last minute bargains, as long as P&O release them generally and not just offer to 'friends & family' like they often do now. 

Andy 

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40 minutes ago, wowzz said:

As we are only sporadic cruisers,  unlike many others here, I too am uneasy about having to book so far in advance  in order to secure an attractive price.  In early 2019,  we bit the bullet, and booked a 35 day cruise on Ventura for January 2021. The price was reasonable,  and in fact, if I was to book the same cruise today,  it would cost us an additional £2,500.

But, Mrs W is now having second thoughts, and it is likely that we will end up cancelling the trip, and will sacrifice the deposit of around  £500. A fair amount of money, but I'd far rather lose it, than be moaned at by Mrs W for five weeks!

In future, I think I'll just look at last minute options, which means Mrs W wont have time to change her mind. 


Can’t you find somebody else to go with? Although I have never met Mrs W, I am sure she is a very generous and reasonable lady and wouldn’t mind.

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1 hour ago, oxygenbanditnot said:

I agree with most comments about price not being bettered when booked at launch. However, people rarely make it clear that they are mean select price. 

When I check, usually mid month on cruises departing the next month; I often find bargains on late savers.

For example, Oceana departing on 8th March(14n) when I looked earlier in the week was £700 each for inside (£50pppn).

If you can't book 2 years ahead, then the savings can be considerable.


Agreed, but for many of us we would only ever book a Select fare, for a multitude of reasons.
 

In our case, we would only want Freedom Dining (which is usually first to ‘sell out’ and we have seen signs on the first night saying that it is full and requests to move from Club to Freedom cannot be accommodated) and we are extremely particular about cabin location. We would never want to be directly above or below a public venue or open deck area. In fact, on one cruise we were blighted with noise from the Live Lounge yet we were two decks above it! Friends of ours were woken very early every morning by the crew dragging deck chairs around overhead for cleaning. Both of these examples were suites, so even the top level of accommodation can be problematic.

 

I know that lots of people regularly book savers and have no problems (or are less sensitive to noise disturbance than we are), but we go to bed earlier than most and like peace and quiet. One bad experience would be one too many for us. For these, and several other reasons (not least that we now need an accessible cabin) we have booked our last 10 or so cruises at launch and the Select prices have never been lower between then and sail date. 
 

All that being said, I very much resent having to book our cruises 2 or 3 years in advance in order to get the best accommodation and lowest price, especially as my wife’s medical condition now means that we do not know what we are going to be dealing with. It is very telling that, for the first time in many years, we only have two future cruises booked with P&O and both are this summer. Whilst I understand the commercial logic of ‘fluid pricing’, in our case we would cruise a lot more often (and, now that we are retired, at short notice) if we knew that we were getting a good deal, but as we will only book Select (for the reasons given) I refuse to pay over the odds. I like the model used by some travel companies (non cruise) that the price never changes from release date to departure. If P&O adopted that model (which I know they won’t) then they would get a lot more business from us. 

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